The e-commerce industry has been booming over the years and has facilitated the integration of markets across the world. It allows producers as well as buyers to access markets easily which were hitherto separated by time and distance. In India, it brings in a lot of Foreign Direct Investment (“FDI”) as the market-based model for e-commerce entities is allowed 100% FDI. In May 2018, Walmart announced its intention to acquire 77% stake in Flipkart, which was approved by the Competition Commission of India (“CCI”) in August 2018, resulting in the biggest acquisition of an e-commerce company around the world. This decision was met with almost equal support and opposition. While…

The World Trade Organization (“WTO”) is an international organization which regulates the trade relations between its member nations. The WTO covers both multilateral as well as Plurilateral Agreements. These Agreements contain certain special provisions for the benefit of the developing nations in the form of special rights. These provisions give developed nations certain rights to treat the developing nations more favourably than other members of the WTO. These provisions are called “Special and differential treatment provisions”. One such benefit provided to the developing nations by the developed nations is the Generalized System of Preferences (“GSP”). The legal basis for the GSP is the Enabling Clause which allowed developing countries to…

The Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Ordinance, 2019 (“Ordinance”) has been promulgated by the Hon’ble President of India on 21st February 2019. The Ordinance comes as a substantial step to tackle unregulated and fraudulent deposit schemes in the country that have been able to abuse the Indian “mindset” of savings and their weakness for investment opportunities that sound too good to be true. This article sets out the law and practice under the BUDS Ordinance to elucidate the legal framework behind it. Background Deposit schemes and chit funds are not foreign or new concepts in India. Presently, there is a wide spectrum of deposit schemes, based around the basic premise of…

The Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 has played a substantial role in the Indian commercial landscape and has given rightful sanction against defaulters of the due process of trade who engage in disingenuous activites that causes unlawful losses to rightful recipients through cheque dishonour. The Act, being a pre-independence legislation, was enacted with the intent to define and amend the law relating to promissory notes, bills of exchange and cheques in India. Though the Act has been successful in introducing a substantial measure to tackle cases of cheque dishonours, pendency of cases, loopholes in the law, inadequacy of provisions and uncertainty of process have led to dwindling results in pursuing cases of…

The Parliament of India has passed the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018 (herein after referred to as the “Act”) in its Monsoon Session in 2018. The Act represents the Government’s ambitious endeavour to buttress the multitudinous peril of economic offenders who cheat and defraud the country and its constituents only to seek haven outside of India, in an attempt to evade prosecution. The past is replete with instances of such offenders who have more or less successfully fled from justice under Indian laws subsequent to benefiting off of scams that have cost the country billions of dollars and have led to a sharp downfall in investor confidence in the country.…